After shopping for a little while longer, Nate drove me back to the high school parking lot so that I could get to my car. He pulled up next to it, since no one was parked around it anymore and let me out of the car.

"I had a really nice time today," he said.

"So did I," I agreed. "Thank you. For asking me and everything. I really just need to get my mind off of Luther for a while until he's caught."

He nodded as he talked to me through my car window. "So, do you think that the police will catch him?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I can't be certain. He's killed so many people, Nate. He killed his parents, for crying out loud. And he's always gotten away with it. If he can get away with dozens of murders, then he can definitely avoid the police."

He nodded. "Well, if you ever feel like you're not feeling safe, just give me a call." He handed me a piece of paper with his phone number on it. I smiled and graciously took it. He smiled warmly back to me, his brown eyes giving me a sense of tranquility. He walked back to his own car as I drove off to my house.

When I got home, there were a couple of men there that I didn't recognize, and a large, white van in the driveway with some sort of company label on it. They were measuring the lawn, and the door and one was even measuring my window. I raised an eyebrow at it and continued to walk up to the house. My mother came rushing out of the garage door to greet me.

"There you are!" she exclaimed, her arms opened up wide. "I've been waiting for you to come home! What costume did you and Nate decide to do?"

I held up the bag that contained my costume. "He's going to be Superman and I will be Lois Lane."

She excitedly clapped her hands together. "Oh how cute! And appropriate, considering the last name and everything."

I chuckled lightly to myself. "Yeah..." I mumbled. I looked up and pointed to the guys around us. "Um, mom, who are these people and what are they doing?"

Her happy expression suddenly became very serious. She wrapped an arm around my shoulder and began slowly walking with me around the yard. "I've been thinking, Ava. And we need some very high-tech security for you. We are setting up alarms for the doors, motion sensors, laser lights across the yard, blah blah blah. Anything to help keep us safe."

I bowed my head lazily and laughed. "Oh mom. Thank you, but can we really afford this?"

"No, but that's why you're not paying for it." My uncle emerged from behind the house, his thick arms crossed against his large chest.

"Uncle Michael?" I asked incredulously. "You're paying for all of this?"

He nodded. "Yep, kiddo, I am. You are the closest thing I'm ever getting to a daughter, and so there ain't no way that I'm going to loose you again." He walked up to me and rubbed his hand on the top of my head. I giggled and wriggled away from him. My mom and uncle both laughed.

"Why don't you two come on inside," my mother said, walking towards the front door. "I ordered your favorite for dinner, Ava..."

My mouth hung open as I could already feel the saliva flooding into it. "Fancy almond chicken and egg rolls...?"

She smiled, causing wrinkles to form in the corners of her eyes, and nodded. "Yep."

I ran onto the porch and inside of the house. I could smell the delicious Asian food from the kitchen, already nicely set out on a plate for me. Mom and Uncle Michael followed in after me. Mom wrapped her arms around my shoulders and gave me a nice kiss on the cheek.

"I thought you could use some comfort food. These last few days must've been so tough for you, with Samantha's death and all."

I nodded slowly and pressed my lips together. I had tried my hardest not to think about it today. I wanted Luther to just completely be out of my life. But I knew that could never, ever happen.

I took the food and the three of us sat down on the couch and had a Star Wars marathon until the late hours of the night. My uncle went back home after signing documents and checks to the guys who installed the security tech. My mom went straight to bed, for she still had to get up early for work the next day. But I decided to stay up and start reading Outlawry.

It started out pretty gruesome; a ruthless mafia man, killing everyone in his path in able to get money, revenge, sex. The story evolved into him falling for his enemy's wife, and trying to convince her to leave her husband for him.

I wanted to continue on, but my eyes got too tired. As I flipped the page to set my book mark in, something fell out of it. It fluttered down into my lap. It was a folded up piece of paper, but it didn't look like it had been in there for too long. Curious, I pulled it up and unfolded it. I turned it over, and let out a gasp when I realized what it was. It was a beautifully sketched picture of...me.

Only, the contents of the picture itself weren't beautiful. I was posing as the Greek goddess Persephone, but my face was contorted in fear and agony. My grey-blue eyes were filled with tears, and in the reflection of them, Luther's face was staring down at me, licking his lips.

On the other side of the paper was some sort of description. "She is beautiful when she's happy. She's beautiful when she's sad. She's beautiful when she's angry. She's beautiful when she's scared. She's beautiful, and I am not. I am ashamed of the monster that I am, and yet at the same time, I am not. I don't want to be anybody else. I like me. But she doesn't like me. And that's a problem. Because...I love her. I love you, Ava Lane."

My eyes wide and filled with a mixture of utter horror, confusion and flattery, I flipped the paper back over to the side of the picture to see that Luther had signed it. I held the picture to my chest. He had just poured out all of his feelings to a picture, but somehow, I felt as though I was meant to see that picture. It was as though it was his only way to communicate with me, to tell me how he truly felt.

I put the picture back inside the book and set it on my nightstand next to me. I turned off my light and snuggled myself into bed.

No... I thought. I am not going to fall in love with a serial killer. No way in hell.

I rose up out of bed to close my curtains, of which I forgot to do earlier on for some reason. Before doing so, I looked across the street to Luther's old, black, dirty house. It stood completely empty and abandoned now. Luther was never going to live in there again. I thought back to a week prior, to the day that Luther had convinced me somehow to come over to his house. Afterwards, Gomez had said something to me.

"Woah!" Gomez exclaimed. "You live right across the street from him?"

I turned my head and nodded. "Yeah...why?"

He chuckled a little bit. "Holy shit, Chica. You're in for some serious hell."

No way in hell would I fall in love with Luther? Well, I suppose I already was in hell. So, in that case, what the hell?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

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